xplus93 wrote:

Got started on my first 486 class build. Using a universal case, but I sill need an I/O shield and a PSU or adapter. […]
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Got started on my first 486 class build. Using a universal case, but I sill need an I/O shield and a PSU or adapter.

Specs are:
Shuttle HOT-433
AM486 DX4-120
24MB
ATI Mach 64 PCI
3COM PCI ethernet (can't remember model)
Adaptec PCI SCSI w/ boot rom (same)
SB16 CT2230

Should be a good system when it's done. It'll be a win95 build so hopefully my DX2 system won't get neglected. Any advice?

I use MS Dos 6.22 on all machines up to and including Pentium-1. Though Win95 on a 486 is fun too.

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Getting ready to play through the Black Mesa Campaign mod for Left for Dead (OG) on a GeForce 8600GT Silent. If anybody wants to join me shoot me a PM. If you use your retro rig even better 😀

bjwil1991 wrote:

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Nice and not a bad price considering it's not that easy to source the parts for those iMacs. It'll be interesting to hear how well an old iMac G3 can handle DVD burning.

Got a Hercules Radeon 9700 Pro.

Can POST fine. Can run 3DMark without any texture corruption. But after awhile, system just shuts down. I'm thinking it may be heat related? Going to re-apply the paste on the heatsink.

dexvx wrote:

Got a Hercules Radeon 9700 Pro.

Can POST fine. Can run 3DMark without any texture corruption. But after awhile, system just shuts down. I'm thinking it may be heat related? Going to re-apply the paste on the heatsink.

Could be your power supply or CPU or even an incompatible motherboard. I've seen all 3 cause that.

PTherapist wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Nice and not a bad price considering it's not that easy to source the parts for those iMacs. It'll be interesting to hear how well an old iMac G3 can handle DVD burning.

I burnt an installation disk of Lubuntu 16.04 Alternative for the iMac since the OS disappeared somehow, and it burned the disc successfully. I tried opening up iDVD 3 to no avail, although the installation medium did detect the drive. Maybe if I remove the iDVD program, as well as the others (iMovie, and iPhotos), and install it again, it'll work.

I reinstalled Lubuntu 16.04 on the HDD due to its mysterious disappearance and the flash folder icon then it did boot into Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 (luckily, the OS was still intact and installed) with no issues.

It's also super quiet, and better than the external I had hooked up to my iMac which needs a new belt and the spindle bearing that spins the discs needs to get oiled or lubricated since it sounds like a jet when inserting a CD or DVD and it hardly ejects with or without a disc in the drive (belt issues).

Also, the DVD burning varies by the hookup on the iMac G3/600:
Internally: up to 8x speed
USB External: up to 0.7x speed
FireWire External: up to 8x speed

I have a spare SuperDrive in case the one that's installed dies in the future (always a good idea to have spare parts).

bjwil1991 wrote:

I burnt an installation disk of Lubuntu 16.04 Alternative for the iMac since the OS disappeared somehow, and it burned the disc […]
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PTherapist wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Nice and not a bad price considering it's not that easy to source the parts for those iMacs. It'll be interesting to hear how well an old iMac G3 can handle DVD burning.

I burnt an installation disk of Lubuntu 16.04 Alternative for the iMac since the OS disappeared somehow, and it burned the disc successfully. I tried opening up iDVD 3 to no avail, although the installation medium did detect the drive. Maybe if I remove the iDVD program, as well as the others (iMovie, and iPhotos), and install it again, it'll work.

I reinstalled Lubuntu 16.04 on the HDD due to its mysterious disappearance and the flash folder icon then it did boot into Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 (luckily, the OS was still intact and installed) with no issues.

It's also super quiet, and better than the external I had hooked up to my iMac which needs a new belt and the spindle bearing that spins the discs needs to get oiled or lubricated since it sounds like a jet when inserting a CD or DVD and it hardly ejects with or without a disc in the drive (belt issues).

Also, the DVD burning varies by the hookup on the iMac G3/600:
Internally: up to 8x speed
USB External: up to 0.7x speed
FireWire External: up to 8x speed

I have a spare SuperDrive in case the one that's installed dies in the future (always a good idea to have spare parts).

Usually if you can cut out as much translation as possible you will get the best speed. Most likely the OS is sending SCSI commands which are being translated to AT, and then to USB and then back to AT with the external. Not a good situation. I'm glad you got it working though. Those old iMacs have a special place in my heart, especially the 600 models. For now my eMac will have to do.

PTherapist wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Nice and not a bad price considering it's not that easy to source the parts for those iMacs. It'll be interesting to hear how well an old iMac G3 can handle DVD burning.

Agreed, my iMac G3/400 could use a replacement optical drive eventually because its eject mechanism is broken so I end up having to slide a tack or a paper clip into the slot to force eject it, gonna be a bit of a pain to find a solution but who knows what'll turn up at a future RE-PC trip? on our last trip I picked up a couple Mac slot-loading combo drives thinking they would work but the adapter from the old drive plugs in at a rotation that makes it difficult to use with the spares I have.

Finally ordered most of the parts for my Windows 98SE and Windows XP builds that have been inspired by various YouTube videos and thread on here and elsewhere.

Will consist of the following:

Intel Pentium 3 1GHz
GeForce 2 GTS
Voodoo 3 PCI
512Mb SDRAM
40GB IDE HDD
Sharp 17" LCD - but waiting to hear back about a free CTX 15" CRT
Wyse PS2 keyboard
Logitech 3 button PS2 mouse
Windows 98SE

and something a little more modern:

Intel Core 2 Quad 9550
4GB DDR2
GeForce GTX260
500GB SATA HDD
Windows XP SP3

As a child of the 90s, these were systems that I dreamt about owning whilst growing up. Shall be fun to play all of the boxed games that I have. I considered getting a Pentium 4 based PC for doing both Windows 98SE and Windows XP but some of the boxed games I have from the mid 2000s would've struggled on it. Sure they play relatively fine on modern hardware (I have a Windows 10 PC with a GTX 970) but that's not the point of doing this. Plus the C2D Quad machine was pretty cheap considering it would've been £1000 new back in 2009.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

dexvx wrote:

Got a Hercules Radeon 9700 Pro.

Can POST fine. Can run 3DMark without any texture corruption. But after awhile, system just shuts down. I'm thinking it may be heat related? Going to re-apply the paste on the heatsink.

Could be your power supply or CPU or even an incompatible motherboard. I've seen all 3 cause that.

I have one 'testing' platform for AGP cards (may need to split it because some of the newer cards with bridges don't like it) that has run 6800Ultra's before. So doubtful it's a power issue. Although incompatible motherboard was possible. Worst case scenario would be if one of the caps on the card were bad (they physically look okay) and need to be replaced.

I seated the heatsink/fan yesterday night. Very easy to remove with those plastic expander clip things (idk what they're called). Very minimal paste that was kind of dried up. Cleared it all with 70% alcohol. Put a small glop of Arctic MX-4. Idk why everyone loves Hercles that much. They had that unique PCB and look. But they are amongst the highest malfunction rates for me.

This morning I'm running the card. So far so good. Done 3DMark 2003, 2005, 2001SE so far. Going to run some Quake3Arena and post benches on that Q3A thread.

De-soldered this one:

Lucky, leak was small and board has no visual damage.

KCompRoom2000 wrote:

PTherapist wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

Got this in the mail today from eBay for $44.99 ($39.99 + $5 S&H): a DVD Burner from MCE for my iMac G3/600 Slot-Loading system with the bracket, Molex power splitter, data/power logic board, its own bracket with the DVD Burner installed, the driver CD, and a blank DVD.

Now I'm happy. And it's brand new on top of it.

Nice and not a bad price considering it's not that easy to source the parts for those iMacs. It'll be interesting to hear how well an old iMac G3 can handle DVD burning.

Agreed, my iMac G3/400 could use a replacement optical drive eventually because its eject mechanism is broken so I end up having to slide a tack or a paper clip into the slot to force eject it, gonna be a bit of a pain to find a solution but who knows what'll turn up at a future RE-PC trip? on our last trip I picked up a couple Mac slot-loading combo drives thinking they would work but the adapter from the old drive plugs in at a rotation that makes it difficult to use with the spares I have.

This made me think back to how that iMac G3 350 I had wouldn't eject a CD properly, but read it just fine. However, I didn't know about the paperclip trick and the hidden lever 'til last night.

It took a few tries because it only spit the very edge of the CD out before remounting it, but I got it out of there.

Just for the heck of it, I tried inserting a different CD for the heck of it, and noticed that the inject mechanism couldn't effectively pull the disc in, either. It's like it can't get a good grip, like printer feed rollers that can't grip a sheet of paper properly.

Maybe this would be a good excuse to upgrade the iMac to a DVD drive, but chances are those have failing inject/eject mechanisms too. That and since it's just the 350 MHz model without FireWire ports or the AirPort slot, I don't think it's worth it. Better to beef up my MDD G4 instead.

kazeobi wrote:

De-soldered this one:

WP_20170811_19_47_57_Rich.jpg

Lucky, leak was small and board has no visual damage.

Good thing you caught that at the nickel cadmium of time. It doesn't take much for those to leak during storage, not running for years in a climate controlled area, or high levels of humidity. Lithium batteries do that as well in some cases (not as prone, but could take series of neglect for those to leak), but in Apple computers cases, those batteries can leak and cause damage without warning.

After a couple of weeks restoring and upgrading a Gateway 450 system I turned it on today and the 440BX mobo flashed and smoked. Really sucks. Brand new and fairly high end Corsair SF450 450w SFX PSU so I don't think it was that and it had turned on at least 10 times with that PSU before this happened without issue. Talked with luckybob about it and it looks like a transistor blew near the Slot 1 CPU. Going to order another 440BX mobo tomorrow. Let's hope it was just a weak mobo part and was a random event. I am making a video of this project, but unfortunately didn't get that magic action shot of it blowing up.

liqmat wrote:

After a couple of weeks restoring and upgrading a Gateway 450 system I turned it on today and the 440BX mobo flashed and smoked. Really sucks. Brand new and fairly high end Corsair SF450 450w SFX PSU so I don't think it was that and it had turned on at least 10 times with that PSU before this happened without issue. Talked with luckybob about it and it looks like a transistor blew near the Slot 1 CPU. Going to order another 440BX mobo tomorrow. Let's hope it was just a weak mobo part and was a random event. I am making a video of this project, but unfortunately didn't get that magic action shot of it blowing up.

Can't a blown transistor be replaced?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

liqmat wrote:

After a couple of weeks restoring and upgrading a Gateway 450 system I turned it on today and the 440BX mobo flashed and smoked. Really sucks. Brand new and fairly high end Corsair SF450 450w SFX PSU so I don't think it was that and it had turned on at least 10 times with that PSU before this happened without issue. Talked with luckybob about it and it looks like a transistor blew near the Slot 1 CPU. Going to order another 440BX mobo tomorrow. Let's hope it was just a weak mobo part and was a random event. I am making a video of this project, but unfortunately didn't get that magic action shot of it blowing up.

Can't a blown transistor be replaced?

I am no expert in this matter, but from what I have been reading replacing the mobo is a safer option because it could be something down the pipeline that caused that transistor to blow. I am calling one source that has a few of these mobos cheap and bring this back online one part at a time to see if it stays stable.

It may be my fault as right before this happened I had removed the slotket CPU board to do some dusting and a paticle may have entered the CPU Slot 1 socket. I was even thinking maybe the slotket board didn't slide in right, but that's pretty unlikely since there is not much wiggle room in that slot. I have double checked anything that could have gone wrong and honestly have no idea what happened. I just hope all the other parts survived the event. We shall see. Dead center of photo between 04L1 and 04L2 is ground zero.

I tested the CRT monitor I bought yesterday and wow that's what I call a real monitor ^^

It's made by Nokia and it is a 447xpro.

Just look at that sharpness ^^
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gw1811e6hk2f1i8 … 0814_172654.3gp
http://www.mediafire.com/file/o6ws2pge72j280n … 0814_171646.3gp

I can't believe this monitor is 20 years old X) I've got newer CRTs that are much worse than this !

Also I tried a strange ISA 8 bit sound card I got with that monitor ... Turns out it's a SB 2.0 clone and it sounds fine for what it is ... You can hear it in the two videos I shot

It's called "J98MF-02"

Deksor wrote:

I tested the CRT monitor I bought yesterday and wow that's what I call a real monitor ^^ […]
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I tested the CRT monitor I bought yesterday and wow that's what I call a real monitor ^^

It's made by Nokia and it is a 447xpro.

Just look at that sharpness ^^
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gw1811e6hk2f1i8 … 0814_172654.3gp
http://www.mediafire.com/file/o6ws2pge72j280n … 0814_171646.3gp

I can't believe this monitor is 20 years old X) I've got newer CRTs that are much worse than this !

Also I tried a strange ISA 8 bit sound card I got with that monitor ... Turns out it's a SB 2.0 clone and it sounds fine for what it is ... You can hear it in the two videos I shot

It's called "J98MF-02"

I didn't know there was a Nokia branded CRT. Sharp picture as well.

Found the most likely cause of my 440BX mini fire. Looks like condensation buildup in the Slot 1 socket due to using canned air in a very humid environment. I usually use an air compressor for this reason, but none were available at the time. Really irks me I could be so absent minded about this and it's not exactly easy to get this exact mobo. So what I am probably going to do is just purchase an Intel Socket 370 board and just skip the whole Slotket and Slot 1 scenario now that the original mobo is a goner. Unfortunately, Gateway's motherboard port case cutouts are part of the case and not a removable panel so I will have to stick close to the Intel P-III mobo designs.